Todd Howard says Starfield isn’t “hard science fiction”, it’s a video game
A new video from Bethesda gives us more details about starfieldThe studio’s first new original franchise in years.
On Tuesday, studio A released a new video series called Constellation Quests, in which it asks many fan questions to game director Todd Howard. The video covers a wide range of topics, from experimentation in space, to dialogue options and even features.
First, Howard addressed the inspiration to starfield. He remembers two games that had a special impact: sun dog For Apple 2 and Atari ST and Travelpen and paper game
This prompted fans to wonder if starfield Is it “hard” science fiction — meaning more rooted in actual science — or not. Howard said Starfield is a tough sci-fi in his opinion, but that mileage will vary depending on what fans might think. However, Howard was clear that this was still a video game about fun, so the team retracted some of the potential frustrations a more realistic sci-fi setting might bring. For example, in the original the player might run out of fuel in space, leaving him afloat. This has since been removed, and the player’s fuel and propulsion type limits the distance players can reach at one time. Unreal, yes, but it’s definitely less frustrating for fans.
Howard then addressed the various features of the game, which offer a positive effect and a negative trade-off. Here are some typical features featured in the video:
- Dream Home – You have a customizable home on a peaceful planet, but you have to pay a mortgage of 50,000 credits every week
- Extroverted – you use less oxygen if you have a mate, but more if you’re alone
- Freestar Collective Settler – Get special dialogue options and better rewards from some factions, but a higher offense reward with others.
- Hero Worship – Your fan Rando will appear to tease you a lot, but he will bring gifts
- Introvert – More stamina alone, less when you have companions
- Kids stuff – You can visit your parents at their home, but 10% of your money will go to them automatically
- Neon Street Rat – Get access to special dialogue options and better rewards in Neon. Crime contributions with other factions are increasing.
- Enlightened – A chest full of items was reached in the Enlightened House, but lost access to another chest
- Globally Raised – A chest full of items in Sanctum Universum has been accessed, but has lost access to another chest
Crucially, players can remove these traits to get rid of their negative (and positive) effects by completing a task or activity. Players who make a bad decision early on will not have to restart the game just to recycle their character traits.
Finally, Howard talked a little bit about the dialogue system. Without getting into it too much, there is now a points-based persuasion system where players can spend points to get a better score. In this section, Howard also revealed that the game currently has over 250,000 lines of dialogue. Aligned with 1000 planets.
Bethesda encouraged players to contact additional questions using the hashtag #starfieldquestions on Twitter. Bethesda and Microsoft will be launched starfield Exclusive to PC and Xbox early next year.
Social media addict. Zombie fanatic. Travel fanatic. Music geek. Bacon expert.